Oceanographers and the Cold War

Disciples of Marine Science

By Jacob Darwin Hamblin

Publication Year: 2005

This book examines the study of the oceans during the Cold War era and explores the international focus of American oceanographers, taking into account the role of the U.S. Navy, U.S. foreign policy, and scientists through the world. Hamblin demonstrates that to understand the history of American oceanography, one must consider its role in both conflict and cooperation with other nations. Scientists redefined the field of oceanography and turned it into one of the most well-funded, militarily decisive, and politically controversial activities in science.

Cover

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

In browsing these pages, the reader will notice a very loose usage of the term
“oceanography.” The book’s subtitle reflects an even more vague term:
marine science. The coverage here is not limited to any particular branch
of marine science, though often some fields dominated at the expense of
others. Because the book is about politics, patronage, and communities in
many different branches of science pertaining to the sea, I did not wish to
splinter the discussion by needlessly separating the scientists as they might
have done themselves.

List of Abbreviations

Introduction

In late 1963, not long after replacing his assassinated predecessor, President
Lyndon Baines Johnson addressed the United Nations with an unorthodox
plan for world peace. Rather than focusing on nuclear disarmament, containment
of communism, or turning away from superpower posturing, he
made an unexpected suggestion. He pointed to the long tradition of moral
codes at sea, where people worked together for common objectives regardless
of political boundaries. Scientists in particular, he said, were engaged
in cooperative ventures that promised to break down animosities and ease
global tensions.

1. Beginnings of Postwar Marine Science and Cooperation

While on a fellowship in Japan in 1953, marine geologist Robert S. Dietz
observed, “The time has come when a ‘showing of the flag’ can be more
effectively done in many parts of the world by a vessel engaged in scientific
pursuits than by a man o’ war.”1 He was writing to scientists at the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, who were planning
an expedition to cross the Pacific Ocean and visit ports in Japan. Dietz did
not specify precisely how he thought marine science could influence relations
between the United States and Japan, but he believed that science could
accomplish something that traditional diplomacy and military power could
not.

2. Oceanography’s Greatest Patron

Scientists’ participation in cooperative ventures depended upon the acquiescence
of their government patrons, particularly those groups within the
United States Navy that actively promoted research. This chapter reveals
the context in which oceanographers promoted their strategy of international
cooperation even among those who, by the nature of the Navy itself,
might seem ill suited to international endeavors.1 It traces the relationship
between the Navy and the oceanographic community, particularly with
regard to research that was international in scope, and reveals how the needs
of each complemented and contradicted the other.

3. The International Geophysical Year, 1957–1958

Through its efforts with Japan and its work with the Navy, the oceanographic
community had promoted cooperation as a means to cultivate science in
the name of American strength. But the question of the realistic extent of
international cooperation still lingered, and the idea of total openness seemed
a great gamble. Still, scientists’ desire for cooperation had an impact upon
their patrons, revealing the formidable rhetorical power of international
cooperation. Cooperation was promoted by American scientists in numerous
disciplines, including oceanography, with the premise that such sharing
would benefit science as a whole and that the United States was in the best
position to transform science into useful technology.

4. The New Face of International Oceanography

Despite its successes, there were many challenges to cooperation during the
IGY, the most obvious being the launch of Sputnik only three months after
it began. This momentous event cast doubts upon the conceptual foundations
of scientific cooperation as a whole, in particular the assumption that
the gains of cooperation outweighed the risks. But the IGY presented opportunities
as well. In the United States, various government agencies sensed
that the IGY was a chance to develop not only a unified policy for cooperation
but also a common forum for the discussion of America’s national
efforts in oceanography. This led to the creation of the National Academy
of Sciences Committee on Oceanography (NASCO).

5. Competition and Cooperation in the 1960s

Programs such as the 110E attested to the desire of scientists, Americans and
non-Americans alike, to resist the imperative of scientific and technological
competition with the Soviet Union and to press on with cooperative
ventures. These efforts, however, were not universally pursued. Other scientists
looked inward at the United States, frustrated by the well-publicized
technological successes of their Cold War enemies, the Soviets. American
science, and its leadership in the international community, had been challenged
by communist successes. Like their colleagues in other scientific fields,
oceanographers in the United States craved a renewed focus on national
strength in the face of the Soviet challenge.

6. Oceanography, East and West

One cannot stress enough that the history of international cooperation in
oceanography has been conditioned by geopolitical considerations. It was
largely the U.S. Navy that provided the means of ascent for American
oceanographers, and it had clear strategic reasons for doing it. Easing tensions
was the rhetorical backdrop of the IGY, and economic development
became that of subsequent years. Previous chapters have shown how important
competition was to the Americans, at home and in international
forums. But there was more to the American-Soviet confrontation than competition
for leadership.

7. Marine Science and Marine Affairs

Western oceanographers widened cooperation in the 1960s to include not
only Soviet scientists but also those least capable of carrying out research:
countries of the developing world. This was part of American scientists’ strategy
of tying their work to economic exploitation at home and abroad. Often
perceived as a necessary evil to finance large-scale research schemes, promoting
marine science for its economic consequences yielded unforeseen
(and some foreseen) problems. One problem already discussed here: physical
oceanographers felt that their hands were tied.

8. Conclusion

After three decades of creating disciples of marine science, oceanographers
had established a massive support infrastructure for themselves that spanned
national and international organizations but, at the same time, had opened
new problems to be negotiated and new threats to their autonomy. By the
early 1970s, international cooperation had undergone both a change in
emphasis and a change in cast.

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